Talk:AvePoint

Major trims requested

My name is Liam and I work for AvePoint. The current page is extremely promotional. It suffers from lists of offices/products in violation of WP:NOPRICE as well as neutral tone issues and poor citations, often to AvePoint's own website or press releases. It looks like someone affiliated with AvePoint probably tried to use Wikipedia for advertising (sorry about that).

My ultimate goal is essentially a WP:TNT stubbing of the page to address these issues and let the page improve/expand more incrementally in the future. I think this draft would be a better starting point. However, for now I wanted to propose edits more incrementally.

Specifically, I want to request the following trims:

1. The entire Products section, pursuant to WP:NOPRICE, which prohibits "product catalogues" (to be replaced with more proper and concise summary in the future)
2. The entire "Microsoft and other partners" section, which is cited to press releases and violates WP:NOPRICE, which discourages listing "business alliances"
3. The following sentence from the Lead: The company also has offices in..." which violates WP:NOPRICE as a listing of offices.
4. The following portions of the History section, that are uncited, promotional, or both. A lot of this might be replaceable with neutral cited content, but I think it is an improvement to trim it for now.

History Trims

"AvePoint was founded by Xunkai (Kai) Gong and Tianyi (TJ) Jiang after they coded the first AvePoint software in a public library in Somerset, New Jersey, in 2001.[citation needed] Jiang described that his experience in the north tower of the World Trade Center (1973–2001) during the September 11 attacks as a key catalyst driving him to become a software entrepreneur.[citation needed]" Explanation: Uncited and promotional ("key catalyst"). Should be replaced with neutral, cited content if possible "One of the company's key milestones was during a 2003 TechEd Microsoft conference session where SharePoint 2003 was unveiled for the first time. After receiving numerous audience questions about the company's inability to migrate their content to the new software, Jiang stood up and announced that DocAve was able to migrate to the new (at the time) platform.[5]" Explanation: Poorly-cited and promotional ("unveiled"). Should be replaced with neutral, cited content if possible "The company was listed in the 2013 Deloitte Fast 500 of the fastest-growing companies in the world,[6] and in Inc. magazine's 2014 "Inc. 500|5000" list of the fastest-growing companies in America.[7] In 2013, AvePoint's DocAve 6 product was named "Best of TechEd"[8] and the company was named a finalist in three categories in the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards: Collaboration and Content Partner of the Year, Office/SharePoint App Developer Partner of the Year, and Public Sector Partner of the Year – Public Safety/National Security.[9] In the 2014 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards, AvePoint was named the winner of the Public Sector Partner of the Year – Public Safety/National Security category and was a finalist in the Office and SharePoint App Developer Partner of the Year category.[10]" Explanation: Poorly-cited and promotional (trivial awards) Starting in 2014, AvePoint made a major change to its technology and business models, converting its perpetual license model to a Software as a service model. After being initially challenged by the ongoing costs of the SaaS model and need to adjust partnerships and engagement models,[12] AvePoint's cloud platform would expand across 14 global data centers, with quarterly releases, 24/7 support and ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation.[13] Today AvePoint is one of the largest solution[buzzword] providers in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem,[14] supporting more than 7 million cloud users, including a quarter of the Fortune 500.[4] Explanation: All cited to Avepoint itself, rather than an independent, secondary source At the time of the announcement, AvePoint disclosed that it expects to generate approximately $148 million in total revenue for the year ending December 31, 2020, which would be an increase of approximately 26% over 2019 revenue. Out of more than 200 public software companies, AvePoint is one of 5 with annual revenue around $150 million, a growth rate of about 30% and positive EBIT margin of about 20%.[18] Explanation: All cited to a press release

This does mean trimming most of the page, but I think it is justified and an improvement to the page. LiamAvePoint (talk) 16:25, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

 Done - All as requested. Encoded  Talk 💬 09:19, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

Second Request

My name is Liam and I work for AvePoint. My last edit request cleaned up most of the promotional content and I was happy to see @Encoded: felt it addressed the advert tag at the top. Now that most of the page is cleaned up, it makes it easier to review what's left, and I'd like to propose one more round of changes as follows:

1. First Paragraph of "SaaS conversion and channel expansion: 2014–2020"

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In 2019, AvePoint expanded its support of Managed Service Providers and their small to medium sized customers via the channel with agreements with global distribution partners such as Ingram Micro, Synex Systems Corporation, Tech Data and others.[6] The company aims to add 40,000 managed service provider partners by 2022.[7]

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Explanation: The first sentence contains name-dropping and a promotional tone regarding sales partnerships. It is cited to a trade publication that mostly just quotes AvePoint itself. The second sentence violates WP:CRYSTAL by discussing the company's "aims".

2. "Initial public merger announcement and De-SPACing: November 2020 – July 2021" and "Public company: July 2021 – Present"

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Initial public merger announcement and De-SPACing: November 2020 – July 2021 In November 2020, AvePoint reached a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check company Apex Technology Acquisition Corp.(APXT). The transaction valued AvePoint at $2 billion and kept AvePoint co-founders Tianyi Jiang and Kai Gong as CEO and Executive Chairman respectively. The new company will be named AvePoint and will trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol AVPT once the deal closes in the first quarter of 2021.[3] Public company: July 2021 – Present On July 2, AvePoint became a public company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker AVPT. AvePoint received approximately $492 million in gross proceeds, consisting of Apex's $352 million of cash held in trust following de minimis public stockholder redemptions and $140 million from an ordinary share private investment in public equity (PIPE), excluding transaction fees. The PIPE was anchored by investors including but not limited to Federated Hermes Kaufman Small Cap Fund, Franklin Templeton, Phoenix Insurance Limited and Singapore-based global investor EDBI.[9]

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The company raised $294 million in venture capital funding, before going public on [[NASDAQ]] in 2020. The following year, it invested $100 million of the funding into a new research and development center in [[Singapore]]. Originally, AvePoint developed software to more easily install [[SharePoint]] on corporate servers and add data backup tools to [[Microsoft Exchange]]. Over time, it started developing data management and governance software that allowed companies to set access rules for Microsoft software and a suite of other tools to supplement Microsoft's platform. By 2020, the company had grown to $152 million in annual revenue, mostly from software subscriptions for cloud-based services. In 2023, AvePoint introduced artificial intelligence services that work with [[Microsoft Office 365]]. According to AvePoint it is the largest data management company for the [[Microsoft 365]] platform. It also develops and markets numerous services in areas like security, governance, and migration for [[Google Workspace]], [[Salesforce]], and [[Microsoft]].

References
References

Explanation: The current page has two sections devoted to the IPO. One entire section is just cited to a press release. It has a lot of excessive detail and repetition. Once these are consolidated into something more concise, the page would have virtually nothing left, so I'm proposing some replacement content that would add cited content about the company's history and what it does.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do to be helpful. LiamAvePoint (talk) 21:07, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

I cannot see how it can possibly be a good idea to add text saying According to AvePoint it is the largest data management company for the Microsoft 365 platform. Surely that is the definition of a non-independent promotional claim, even if the statement is sourced to an article independent of the company?

Also, could you indicate where in the text you are looking to add should the 6 sources listed be located (i.e. which elements do they relate to)?

Finally, material in relation to funding acquired is generally considered to be non-encyclopaedic promotional material. Axad12 (talk) 22:51, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

 Partly done: I took care of #1. Please refer to Axad12's concerns and resubmit the rest. PK650 (talk) 01:08, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

@Axad12: and @PK650: revised #2 request below incorporating Axad12's feedback. This omits the funding rounds, trims the "according to AvePoint" sentence, and adds a preview area that shows the citations better than the diff view.

2. "Initial public merger announcement and De-SPACing: November 2020 – July 2021" and "Public company: July 2021 – Present"

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Initial public merger announcement and De-SPACing: November 2020 – July 2021 In November 2020, AvePoint reached a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check company Apex Technology Acquisition Corp.(APXT). The transaction valued AvePoint at $2 billion and kept AvePoint co-founders Tianyi Jiang and Kai Gong as CEO and Executive Chairman respectively. The new company will be named AvePoint and will trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol AVPT once the deal closes in the first quarter of 2021.[3] Public company: July 2021 – Present On July 2, AvePoint became a public company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker AVPT. AvePoint received approximately $492 million in gross proceeds, consisting of Apex's $352 million of cash held in trust following de minimis public stockholder redemptions and $140 million from an ordinary share private investment in public equity (PIPE), excluding transaction fees. The PIPE was anchored by investors including but not limited to Federated Hermes Kaufman Small Cap Fund, Franklin Templeton, Phoenix Insurance Limited and Singapore-based global investor EDBI.[9]

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The company went public on [[NASDAQ]] in 2020. The following year, it invested $100 million into a new research and development center in [[Singapore]]. Originally, AvePoint developed software to more easily install [[SharePoint]] on corporate servers and add data backup tools to [[Microsoft Exchange]]. Over time, it started developing data management and governance software that allowed companies to set access rules for Microsoft software and a suite of other tools to supplement Microsoft's platform. By 2020, the company had grown to $152 million in annual revenue, mostly from software subscriptions for cloud-based services. In 2023, AvePoint introduced artificial intelligence services that work with [[Microsoft Office 365]]. AvePoint is a data management company largely focused on the [[Microsoft 365]] platform. It also develops and markets numerous services in areas like security, governance, and migration for [[Google Workspace]], [[Salesforce]], and [[Microsoft]].

Preview

The company went public on NASDAQ in 2020. The following year, it invested $100 million into a new research and development center in Singapore. Originally, AvePoint developed software to more easily install SharePoint on corporate servers and add data backup tools to Microsoft Exchange. Over time, it started developing data management and governance software that allowed companies to set access rules for Microsoft software and a suite of other tools to supplement Microsoft's platform. By 2020, the company had grown to $152 million in annual revenue, mostly from software subscriptions for cloud-based services. In 2023, AvePoint introduced artificial intelligence services that work with Microsoft Office 365. AvePoint is a data management company largely focused on the Microsoft 365 platform. It also develops and markets numerous services in areas like security, governance, and migration for Google Workspace, Salesforce, and Microsoft. References

Explanation: The current page has two sections devoted to the IPO. One entire section is just cited to a press release. It has a lot of excessive detail and repetition. Once these are consolidated into something more concise, the page would have virtually nothing left, so I'm proposing some replacement content that would add cited content about the company's history and what it does.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do to be helpful. LiamAvePoint (talk) 17:07, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

There are elements of this which I still do not like. I won't insult anyone's intelligence by stating what those elements are. It is obvious. Axad12 (talk) 17:28, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

Requested Consolidation

1. Consolidating Duplicative IPO Sections

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Initial public merger announcement and De-SPACing: November 2020 – July 2021 In November 2020, AvePoint reached a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check company Apex Technology Acquisition Corp.(APXT). The transaction valued AvePoint at $2 billion and kept AvePoint co-founders Tianyi Jiang and Kai Gong as CEO and Executive Chairman respectively. The new company will be named AvePoint and will trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol AVPT once the deal closes in the first quarter of 2021.[3] Public company: July 2021 – Present On July 2, AvePoint became a public company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker AVPT. AvePoint received approximately $492 million in gross proceeds, consisting of Apex's $352 million of cash held in trust following de minimis public stockholder redemptions and $140 million from an ordinary share private investment in public equity (PIPE), excluding transaction fees. The PIPE was anchored by investors including but not limited to Federated Hermes Kaufman Small Cap Fund, Franklin Templeton, Phoenix Insurance Limited and Singapore-based global investor EDBI.[9]

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The company went public on [[NASDAQ]] in 2020.

References

Explanation: The current page has two sections devoted to the IPO. One entire section is just cited to a press release. It has a lot of excessive detail and repetition.

2. Consolidating other sections

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=== Early years: 2001{{En dash}}2014 === === SaaS conversion and channel expansion: 2014{{En dash}}2020 === === Initial public merger announcement and De-SPACing: November 2020 {{En dash}} July 2021 === === Public company: July 2021 {{En dash}} Present ===

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Explanation: The History section has one sub-section for each paragraph. Wikipedia's Manual of Style discourages short sections. I suggest consolidating to just one History section that is a few paragraphs long, instead of having a separate section for each paragraph.

You'll see this was included in my request above, but I think I was asking for too many changes at once. LiamAvePoint (talk) 20:14, 19 December 2024 (UTC)

 Question: I'm sorry, I'm a bit confused about this. Are you suggesting just removing the content itself? I'm struggling to see where the duplication is currently. Likeanechointheforest (talk) 21:45, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

@Likeanechointheforest: Request 1 is to consolidate the two sections that are both about the same thing (going public), especially because one entire section is cited to a press release. The redundancy is that there are two sections on the same topic, but there are other problems such as using a press release for an entire paragraph.

Request 2 is only to trim the specific lines of code indicated to consolidate the one-paragraph sections into a single section with multiple paragraphs, not to delete the content of the sections themselves.

The context is this page used to be massive and mostly promotional. I requested some huge trims that were approved. However, this left what remains of the page needing some tidying up, since most of the content of the page was removed, but all of the sections were left up. LiamAvePoint (talk) 16:29, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

@LiamAvePoint Honestly, still struggling to see how this doesn't just remove content that isn't anywhere else in the page. I made a small edit removing a redundancy. Can you reformat your request perhaps? Likeanechointheforest (talk) 15:19, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

@Likeanechointheforest: Let me know if the following before and after makes it more clear:

Before

History Early years: 2001–2014 The company was backed by investors Goldman Sachs and Summit Partners, which acquired minority stakes in AvePoint in 2014 and 2007, respectively. SaaS conversion and channel expansion: 2014–2020 In January, 2020 the company announced a $200 million Series C investment led by TPG Sixth Street Partners, with additional participation from prior investor Goldman Sachs and other unnamed investors. The round brought the total raised to $294 million to date. Initial public merger announcement and De-SPACing: November 2020 – July 2021 In November 2020, AvePoint reached a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check company Apex Technology Acquisition Corp.(APXT). The transaction valued AvePoint at $2 billion and kept AvePoint co-founders Tianyi Jiang and Kai Gong as CEO and Executive Chairman respectively. Public company: July 2021 – Present On July 2, AvePoint became a public company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker AVPT. AvePoint received approximately $492 million in gross proceeds, consisting of Apex's $352 million of cash held in trust following de minimis public stockholder redemptions and $140 million from an ordinary share private investment in public equity (PIPE), excluding transaction fees. The PIPE was anchored by investors including but not limited to Federated Hermes Kaufman Small Cap Fund, Franklin Templeton, Phoenix Insurance Limited and Singapore-based global investor EDBI.

After

History The company was backed by investors Goldman Sachs and Summit Partners, which acquired minority stakes in AvePoint in 2014 and 2007, respectively. In January, 2020 the company announced a $200 million Series C investment led by TPG Sixth Street Partners, with additional participation from prior investor Goldman Sachs and other unnamed investors. The round brought the total raised to $294 million to date. In November 2020, AvePoint reached a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check company Apex Technology Acquisition Corp.(APXT). The transaction valued AvePoint at $2 billion and kept AvePoint co-founders Tianyi Jiang and Kai Gong as CEO and Executive Chairman respectively. On July 2, AvePoint became a public company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker AVPT. AvePoint received approximately $492 million in gross proceeds, consisting of Apex's $352 million of cash held in trust following de minimis public stockholder redemptions and $140 million from an ordinary share private investment in public equity (PIPE), excluding transaction fees. The PIPE was anchored by investors including but not limited to Federated Hermes Kaufman Small Cap Fund, Franklin Templeton, Phoenix Insurance Limited and Singapore-based global investor EDBI.

reflist

LiamAvePoint (talk) 16:28, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

It does, thank you very much! Makes perfect sense, and done! Likeanechointheforest (talk) 20:25, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Copy Paste from Press Release

The final edit I wanted to request was to trim some excessive details about the IPO that are largely copy/pasted from the cited press release. Below is my request:

Requested Trim

In November 2020, AvePoint reached a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check company Apex Technology Acquisition Corp.(APXT). The transaction valued AvePoint at $2 billion and kept AvePoint co-founders Tianyi Jiang and Kai Gong as CEO and Executive Chairman respectively. On July 2, AvePoint became a public company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker AVPT. AvePoint received approximately $492 million in gross proceeds, consisting of Apex's $352 million of cash held in trust following de minimis public stockholder redemptions and $140 million from an ordinary share private investment in public equity (PIPE), excluding transaction fees. The PIPE was anchored by investors including but not limited to Federated Hermes Kaufman Small Cap Fund, Franklin Templeton, Phoenix Insurance Limited and Singapore-based global investor EDBI. References

The first paragraph is cited to Bloomberg and has a sensible amount of detail. However, the second paragraph (1) is a copy/paste copyright violation of the cited press release (2) is cited to a press release and (3) has a lot of excessive details about the logistics of the IPO. It's factually accurate (as far as I would know), and some of the information may be salvageable. I think addressing this final item will finally wrap-up my cleanup of what was formerly an excessive and promotional page. Many thanks to @Likeanechointheforest: and @Encoded: for helping me with the cleanup. LiamAvePoint (talk) 18:05, 5 February 2025 (UTC)

 Done Likeanechointheforest (talk) 19:21, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

Introductory Paragraph

I have one more edit to request actually. I didn't notice the obvious promotion in the Lead: "enabling organizations to collaborate with confidence and ensure a robust data foundation". I suggest the following rewrite for the Lead to remove the promotion and adopt a more standard format:

Avepoint is a public company headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. It develops software products intended to add features or security to other major platforms, like Microsoft 365, Google, or Salesforce. AvePoint was founded in 2001 and went public on NASDAQ in 2020.

All of this is cited in the body, per Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section. Pinging @Encoded: and @Likeanechointheforest:, who helped with prior requests. LiamAvePoint (talk) 16:04, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

 Done Likeanechointheforest (talk) 19:49, 1 March 2025 (UTC)